City revival team aims to work its magic again

Fox Lake next for Antioch duo

When Claude LeMere looks around Fox Lake, he sees a picturesque, slightly scruffy town full of opportunities, a revitalization project waiting to happen.

It's a lot like Antioch looked eight years ago, when LeMere became that town's community development director. Then, LeMere teamed with Tim Wells, Antioch's village administrator, to put some energy back into the Chain o' Lakes town.

The effort seems to have paid off. Downtown Antioch bustles, pulling in shoppers from miles around to take advantage of the unique businesses in the stately old buildings that line Lake Street.

Wells and LeMere enjoyed the project so much that they wanted to do it again. They made a few discreet inquiries in Fox Lake, Antioch's neighbor to the southwest.

Last week, the Fox Lake Village Board made them an offer.

"We're thrilled to have them," Fox Lake Mayor Nancy Koske said after the board hired Wells and LeMere. "We have a unique town with unique assets. We're surrounded by water, we have a Metra train stop, and we have a community that wants to be involved."

Officials from towns throughout the Chain o' Lakes are likely to hear from Wells and LeMere as the two begin the next act in reviving the Chain as a destination attraction.

"Look out, Lake Geneva," LeMere said.

The team will work for Fox Lake as part-time consultants for most of the summer while they keep their full-time jobs with Antioch. In late summer, they'll switch.

On Aug. 13, Wells will become Fox Lake's first full-time village administrator but will be available to consult with Antioch through a deal with Clark Dietz Inc., an engineering firm that will employ him as a consultant hired out to both towns.

On Sept. 1, LeMere will follow suit, becoming Fox Lake's first community development director. LeMere will be available to help Antioch under an arrangement similar to Wells', although LeMere will be on Fox Lake's payroll as a full-time employee. Wells and LeMere each will be paid $60,000 per year, Koske said.

"They will be around to finish up some projects, which is good for us," Antioch Mayor Taso Maravelas said. "They have brought a lot of attention to our community."

About 28,000 boats are registered on the Chain o' Lakes every year, making it the busiest inland recreational waterway in the United States, according to the Fox Waterway Agency, which registers the boats. On busy weekends, the Chain has attracted more than 100,000 visitors.

The area's history is well-stocked with stories from the days when the Chain was a favorite getaway for some of Chicago's most famous and infamous residents. Prohibition, it has been said, never really took hold in the Chain. Al Capone allegedly hid out there from time to time. Waterway agency workers staffing dredges have been saying for years that they're still looking for the slot machines dumped in the Chain by law-enforcement authorities in the 1930s.

Much of the pizazz faded as the cities around the Chain matured into suburbs. Antioch and Fox Lake still have the lion's share of Chain-related businesses, such as boat dealers, bait shops and other enterprises catering to people who use the waterway.

"We did what we set out to do in Antioch," said Wells, who started his career with the village in 1974 and has served in every position except police chief and fire chief. "We did a good job, but it's a mature project, and it's time to move on."

LeMere, who started with Antioch in 1993, said he has chosen not to see the cities as separate entities, but as different parts of the same project. Antioch has grown into a destination town, he said. Doing the same to Fox Lake would add the activity needed to bring more money to the Chain o' Lakes.

The team also wants to attract businesses to Fox Lake's stretch of U.S. Highway 12, which they say is suited to big-box retailers and auto dealerships, both of which generate steady tax revenue. The trick will be to attract the big-box retailers--stores in huge buildings in which everything is on one floor--that don't compete with the small mom-and-pop shops downtown, they said. Hotels and downtown residential development also are planned.

"I'm excited that some real professionals have finally been hired to help us," said Mary Freeman, owner of Incognito, a six-month-old restaurant at Grand Avenue and Nippersink Boulevard in downtown Fox Lake. "Business here has been good, but people often tell us that they're surprised to find an upscale restaurant like ours in Fox Lake. There's a bit of a stigma here."